This invention relates to improvements in processing poultry gizzards, wherein gizzards that have been extracted from chickens or other poultry with gut and stomach still attached thereto are moved through a processing path where the gut and stomach are severed from the gizzards, the gizzards are cut or "split" and loose material removed therefrom, and the gizzards are peeled.
In the past, gizzards have been removed from poultry and processed separately, as by pulling or severing the gut and stomach away from the gizzard, splitting the gizzard, and peeling the gizzard. Prior art patents which disclose equipment for performing these functions include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,172,148, 3,406,425 and 3,411,828 of C. J. Hill. The various equipment utilized in the gizzard processing steps includes a trough-like structure wherein gizzards are placed with a stream of water flowing downwardly through the trough causing the lighter stomachs to precede the more dense gizzard, so that the gizzard and stomach are oriented with a stomach in front for reception by subsequent equipment. The gizzards are then transferred from the trough to a conveyor system where the stomach is pulled or otherwise severed from the gizzard and the upper surface of the gizzard is cut into to split the gizzard, and the halves of the gizzard are opened by guide bars and the gizzard washed.
While the prior art gizzard processing equipment has been successful to some extent, the gizzards are not always oriented correctly as they pass through the prior art equipment and the stomachs and gut are not always properly removed from the gizzards. One of the problems in the prior art equipment is the initial orientation of the gizzard and its attached stomach so that the stomach leads the gizzard to the subsequent equipment and the transfer of the gizzard from the trough to the equipment.